The spreading of salt or other ice melters is a requirement in many areas for maintaining roads and driveways during the winter months. Various types of spreader units have been developed for spreading granular dry, free flow materials. Many such spreader units have been designed for mounting on vehicles such as trucks, either on the receiver of smaller trucks, or in the bed of larger commercial trucks that are used in wintertime road and driveway maintenance.
Spreaders generally hold a supply of granular material such as rock salt, flake (calcium 30 chloride), and/or bagged ice melters for distribution over a surface. Spreaders may be mounted in or on a vehicle which may be driven over the surface to be treated. The material moves from a hopper to a motor-driven spinner that distributes the material to the surface over which the vehicle moves.
Because salt spreaders are not used year round, they are generally removably mounted on the receiver of a truck, or, in the case of larger spreaders, in the bed of larger commercial trucks. In either event, sale spreaders have a discharge outlet at the bottom of the hopper through which the particulate material, such as salt, falls onto a spinner. The spinner that is rotated by a drive assembly including an electric or hydraulic motor that causes the spinner to spread the particulate material discharged from the hopper over a wide distribution area behind the truck. The speed of the spinner may typically be varied to control the size of the area over which the particulate material is distributed.